ZAO WOU-KI (1920-2013)

​​1950 The Abstract Poem of Zao Wou-Ki2016 SOLD for HK$ 70M including premium

The family of Zao Wou-Ki owned an artwork by Mi Fu, the outstanding artist of Song time who was so skillfully blending landscape and calligraphy. The boy considered early that painting and poetry must meet in a unique art.

In making his art studies in Hangzhou, Zao learns oil painting with Lin Fengmian. Arriving in Paris in 1948, he discovers abstract art. He is also inspired by the research of Henri Michaux on the abstraction of the calligraphic message.

For Zao, the color is a kind of theater stage on which he will write his poems on the hidden meaning of the universe. Figuration (boats, birds or the Moon) is drifting into a pseudo-calligraphy that makes it increasingly indecipherable.

In 1950 some oils on canvas by Zao are dominated by pure green that is mingled with more complex hues such as blue-green or yellow-brown. These colors express his vision of the world at that time. Green will soon cease to be an essential element of his palette.

On May 28 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells an oil on canvas "Vert émeraude" 127 x 127 cm, lot 24. The delicate balance of the masses may evoke day and night.

The trend of the artist toward an expressionist abstraction is already taken with fully filled surfaces as in Pollock, the absence of structural lines as in Still, an unreadable message announcing Gaitonde and a subtlety in color mixing which prefigures Richter.

​1955 Poetry under the Moon​2016 SOLD for HK$ 47M including premium

Zao Wou-Ki is not a poet like the others. He does not use words but painting. After his arrival in Paris he seeks the essence of figurative themes associated with a proto-calligraphy that blends East and West by following altogether the automatic writing of Michaux and the mystery of the Oracle bones of ancient China.

Expressing the harmony of the shadows at the border between day and night, Vert Emeraude is one of the earliest examples of his art without figurative elements. Painted in 1950, this oil on canvas was sold for HK $ 70M including premium by Christie's on May 28, 2016.

The poet operates more systematically afterward a shift towards abstraction. He no longer watches boats and trees vanishing within the mist. He sees rain, wind, frost, light, all these elements without a proper form that create the atmosphere and poetry of our planet. His color has become an intercessor between the world and the viewer and his pseudo-calligraphy will soon become unnecessary.

This French title is misleading, probably unintentionally, with its extra-terrestrial meaning. The theme is the ambience of moonlight in a clear frosty winter night, with a contrast between the dark masses in the foreground that can still be the silhouette of the trees and the bursting light from the rest of the surface accentuated by an upward motion of the pseudo-calligraphy.

​1957 Zao Wou-Ki also known as Zhao Wuji2009 SOLD 35 MHK$ including premium

PRE SALE DISCUSSION

The influences of Chinese and European arts mingle harmoniously in the work of Zao Wou-Ki.

In 1957, when he was in Paris for nine years, his art is maturing. Pushed by the helplessness of the failure of his first marriage, he renounces any figuration in oils on canvas without drawing. The subtle play of colors with no real framing are highlighted by a brightness that seems to come from within the picture.

Some of his paintings can be interpreted as abstract landscapes or as groups of clouds. This is not the case with "Nous Deux" (We Two), an abstraction embellished with calligraphic signs, 2 x 1.6 m, whose title reveals the personal difficulties of the artist on that year.

This beautiful and important painting is estimated 10 MHK $ at Christie's, which sells it in Hong Kong on May 24.

This auction room is the leading world specialist of Zao Wou-Ki: the fourteen highest results of the artist have been achieved there, according to the database Artvalue. Compared with them, the above estimate seems too conservative.

POST SALE COMMENT​As I wrote, the estimate was too cautious. This large painting executed in a key period of the career of the artist was sold 35 MHK$ including premium. This price is approaching the highest result for Zao Wou-Ki: 45 MHK$ fee included in the same auction room, on 30 November 2008 for a painting executed in the previous year, 1956, 195 x 130 cm.

​​1958 The Second Birth of Zao Wou-Ki2013 SOLD 90 M RMB yuan including premium

Zao Wou-ki was deeply shocked by his divorce in early 1957. The oil on canvas titled Nous Deux, 161 x 200 cm, called for the dawn of his second career in a world inhabited by strange and indecipherable calligraphic signs. Nous Deux was sold for HK $ 35M including premium at Christie's on May 24, 2009 .

Nous Deux is one of his last works that had an explicit title. From this turning point, Zao expresses his inner fire and leaves the viewer with the task of interpreting it, or just admiring.

Abstraction is an oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm, painted in 1958. This explosion of glowing fire is like the origin of the world in a dark environment, such as Matta also could have dreamed it. The fake calligrams from Nous Deux become smoky debris floating in front of the bright colors.

For Zao, this artwork was also the starting point of his life as a famous artist. Exhibited alongside Hartung at the Galerie Charpentier, it ensured an immediate success for this 37 year old artist. This masterpiece spent afterward half a century in the Art Institute of Chicago which is deaccessioning it now.

Abstraction is the star lot of the first great sale made by Sotheby's in Beijing, on December 1. It is estimated RMB yuan 35M. Here is the link to the catalog.

POST SALE COMMENT

Sotheby's had rightly highlighted the importance of this specific Abstraction in the art of Zao Wou-ki. It is a great success: RMB 90M including premium.

​1963 The Whirlpool of the World2017 SOLD for HK$ 76M including premium

Facing the canvas Zao Wou-Ki releases his impulses. His violence does not prevent his lucidity : he knows that the total and complex mastery of his brush and of his paint layers allows him to go even further in the creation of his universe in perpetual motion. He is somehow an abstract surrealist.

From 1957 he regularly visits New York where he is represented by the Kootz Gallery. He incorporates in his style the gestural spontaneity of the Action Painting experienced by him as a fight against the canvas along with a more frequent use of large sizes standardized to 130 x 195 cm in the United States.

The landscape view with its infinite horizons replaces the vertical format. The moving magma of lava supersedes the volcanic eruption in his sensorial universe.

The creativity of the artist continues irrepressibly. 14.11.63, a similar scene of the same dimensions in an incandescent daylight, was sold for HK $ 39M including premium by Christie's on May 28, 2011. On a larger format 255 x 345 cm later reduced to 230 cm high, 29.09.64, a view even closer to the central whirlpool of the artist's mind, was sold for HK $ 153M including premium by Christie's on May 27, 2017.

​1964 Abstraction and Calligraphy​2017 SOLD for HK$ 203M including premium

Zao Wou-Ki is passionate about art since childhood. His grandfather teaches him calligraphy. Later in Europe he often uses that specifically Chinese philosophy in his abstract art.

Calligraphy is a visual art with its five shades of ink. Like Western graphology it reveals the behavior and energy of the writer. The emperors used huge autograph characters to convey to the court their moral precepts as the Sons of Heaven.

At first Zao's message is primarily visual. When he incorporates lines in his abstract theme of natural forces, they do not constitute words. The synthesis will come later : in 1957 he integrates into his works some paleo-writing elements from the oracle bones.

Zao is attentive to anything that can exacerbate his exceptional energy. His visits to New York teach him to leave freedom to the movement of the hand, which does not exclude a repetition of the gesture to achieve an unlimited entanglement of colors. He also cancels any reluctance to monumentality despite the material difficulties for its implementation, as Rothko had done ten years earlier.

His abstract landscapes become gorgeous. 09.01.63 was sold for HK $ 76M including premium by Sotheby's on September 30, 2017. 29.09.64 was sold for HK $ 153M including premium by Christie's on May 27, 2017.

Painted in the mean time, 29.01.64, oil on canvas 260 x 200 cm, retrieves altogether the vertical format and the memory of the imperial calligraphy. A kaleidoscopic landscape is masked by a gigantic sign with complex lines in which Chinese readers globally recognize the character meaning love or longevity. Westerners may instead see a big tree in the storm.

29.01.64 is estimated HK $ 85M for sale by Christie's in Hong Kong on November 25, lot 24. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

​​1964 Abstraction up to the Horizon​2017 SOLD for HK$ 153M including premium

Zao Wou-Ki reaches a new level of his maturity in the early 1960s. His intense art no longer needs references to other artists. Alone in his studio he lets his inner tensions explode. He had learned from the abstract expressionists of New York the advantage of the large formats with which the artist increases the amplitude and the speed of the movement.

His vast and tormented landscapes with a perspective and a horizon in fact come exclusively from his subconscious. His fire based planet is composed of incandescent whirls and of lava flows.

29.9.64 is his largest format on its date, originally 255 x 345 cm later reduced to 230 x 345 cm under the supervision of the artist. The dominant darkness is embellished with saturated blue fighting with bright white in the foreground and an orange center.

The large surface allows a multitude of minute details that constitute together the sumptuous balance of the universe while resorting to the widest variety of techniques : impasto, transparent layers, drips, splashes and pseudo-calligraphy.

Two weeks later the Hommage à Edgar Varèse executed in the same original size confirms a key to the creativity of Zao at that time. He was passionate about contemporary music and a great friend of Varèse. The musician knew how to place silences in the midst of the noise just like the tumultuous landscapes of the artist include quiet details.

29.9.64 is estimated HK $ 38M for sale by Christie's in Hong Kong on May 27, lot 4. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

​​1968 Expression and Contemplation in the Art of Zao Wou-Ki2011 SOLD 69 MHK$ including premium

PRE SALE DISCUSSION

From 1959, the dates supersede the titles in the paintings by ZaoWou-Ki (Zhao Wuji). The artist appreciates that his most suitable expression is a total abstraction, without calligraphy and with no recognizable shape.

The observer is free to still want to see a landscape, clouds, rocks, signs. But in these strong colors barely dotted witha few thin lines, any attempt at interpretation is immediately contradicted by a new detail. In the end, only remains the pleasure of pure contemplation, and perhaps that sort of Oriental ecstasy is the cause that makes his art so popular.

For four or five years, the art of Zao of the 1950s and 1960s won a passionate customer base in the international salesof Hong Kong. During this period, the prices often went to triple or quadruple the lower estimates.

Sotheby's has already announced some highlights of its autumn session of sales in Hong Kong. On October 3, the auction includes 10.1.68, an oil on canvas of medium size, 117 x 82 cm, estimated HK $ 25M.

​​1982 The Mental Fire of Zao Wou-Ki2013 SOLD 85 MHK$ including premium

The 1970s were difficult for Zao Wou-ki, troubled by the death of his young wife. Time passes and the master again takes interest to life and to his art and enjoys the new worldwide recognition of his talent.

Titled by its date 15.1.82 is typical of this renewal of energy. The large triptych, 195 x 390 cm, juxtaposes the sky and the ground. The preparation is meticulous, with a multitude of fine brush lines on the two background colors of this artwork, yellow ocher and light purple.

This work is a hymn to life. What I supposed to be the ground is not a horizon but instead has the shape of a large and cheerful inside fire. The highest flames mingle with the decidedly impressionistic sky.

One year before the consecration in his native country, Zao was already inspired by the Chinese expression. The panoramic composition of 15.1.82 anticipates the works of similar style where we like to identify a Chinese landscape, such as the 10.3.83 diptych of the sacred mountain that sold for HK $ 37M including premium at Sotheby's on April 6, 2013.

15.1.82 is estimated HK $ 68M, for sale by Sotheby's inHong Kongon October 5. Here is the link to the press release shared by ArtDaily.

POST SALE COMMENT​This triptych is confirmed as a masterpiece of Zao Wou-ki: HK$ 85 million including premium.

​1983 The Journey of Zao Wou-Ki in China2013 SOLD 37 MHK$ including premium

PRE SALE DISCUSSION

The journey of Zao Wou-Ki in China in 1983 is of course not the first, but for the first time he is recognized as a major artist in his home country.

He was very fortunate to meet Zhang Daqian, in extremis because the old master died on April 2, 1983, aged 84. Their approaches had been parallel. While Zao submitted to the observer his psychic landscapes, Zhang spread his most expressive colors on identified landscapes.

The diptych 10.3.83 by Zao is influenced by Zhang's technique of splashed color (although I have not understood whether it had been painted before or after the meeting of the two masters). This oil on canvas, 200 x 325 cm, is estimated HK $ 25M, for sale by Sotheby's inHong Kongon April 6. Here is the link to the catalog.

Contrast is violent between the brightly lit ground and the night sky, and the horizon is not a line but a diffuse area in the best style of Zao. For once, although the title is a simple date, the landscape seems identifiable. It would be Mount Tai, one of the five sacred mountains of China.

The new admiration of China for the art of Zao was dazzling. Before the end of 1983, this diptych was exhibited both in Beijing and Hangzhou.

POST SALE COMMENT

Good price, HK$ 37M including premium, for this painting made in a key year of Zao's later career.